Is Technology Killing Our Creativity?
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
I don’t camp. I prefer to be in a place with electricity and running water. I’ve owned a Kindle for years, and I’ve been using computers since the only game you could play on them was pong.
I’m not someone who thinks the world was better off before technology.
But I am someone who’s wondering what our dependence on technology might be doing to our long-term ability as a society to think creatively and to innovate.
Reliance on technology hurt Iron Man Tony Stark.
After fighting the aliens in New York during the final showdown in The Avengers, Tony Stark—a creative genius—is in a tailspin. Every time he thinks about New York, he has a panic attack. His technology failed him, and he almost died as a consequence. Since then, he’s made over 40 upgrades to his suit, tweaking and tinkering.
At the start of Iron Man 3, what he’s ended up with is a suit that malfunctions more than it works.
One of those malfunctions strands him in Tennessee (he started in California). He scrounges parts to try to repair his suit, but still can’t get it to charge properly. With no suit, he doesn’t know what to do.
Then a little boy reminds him what he is. He’s a mechanic. The suit isn’t Iron Man. He, Tony Stark, is Iron Man.
His creativity created the Iron Man suit. When he became overly dependent on the technology he created, he lost that creativity.
It wasn’t until his suit was taken away that he got his creativity back. He breaks into the Mandarin’s mansion using items he could buy at a hardware store and rig in the little boy’s shed.
I wonder sometimes if we aren’t raising a generation who will have the same problem. All the technological inventions of the past 20-30 years came from a generation that was forced to use their brains and creativity apart from advanced technology in order to create it. But will the next generation be able to innovate apart from their current technology or will their creativity be stunted by it?
Is a generation coming who won’t know how to write, only to type? Is a generation coming who can’t do mathematical calculations by hand, using their mind? Is a generation coming who doesn’t need to remember anything for themselves because the answer is only an internet search away?
And if those things are true, will their minds be as sharp as the great men and women of the past who enabled us to reach this point in the first place?
I don’t have the answers, but I’d love to know what you think. Are we in danger of allowing technology to kill our creativity? What might be the solution if we are?
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May 13, 2013 @ 11:10:40
That is a good question. The sad/scary thing is, I don’t think we can really know the answer until we get there. I sometimes think we are too reliant on technology. I had been using my smart phone as a calendar and notebook. But, when an update made it malfunction and I had to do a “factory reset”, wiping out all the information, I went back to my paper calendar and started using the notebook in my purse. I realized that I don’t want to be that dependant on something that can break down so easily. Unless I’m in a flood or fire, my calendar and notebook will be fine. And, in those circumstances, I don’t think I’ll be worrying about my calendar! 🙂 I realize I went a little off topic…
May 13, 2013 @ 14:38:03
I actually think that’s a great related topic. For example, I can still read a map, but I know people who aren’t much younger than I am who can’t. They don’t feel they need to because they have GPS or Google Maps on their phone. But I’ve been in situations where both the GPS and Google Maps failed me, and I had to dig out a map and go into a variety store to have them show me where to go. Technology isn’t 100% reliable. (I’m also like you and use an old-fashioned paper calendar and notebook. I’ve had one too many computer crashes/phone glitches to trust them.)
May 13, 2013 @ 22:48:51
I like watching The Amazing Race – people stuck in strange places without their creature comforts. And the most fun is watching them when they not only can’t read a map, but can’t understand the directions the person on the street gives them!
The other thing that irritates me about tech dependence is cashiers who can’t count back change. Used to be just young people, now it’s most. If the cash register can’t tell them, they have no idea. So besides the loss of creativity (I think it’s down in some areas and up in others), I definitely think there’s a loss in learning to use your own brain.
May 13, 2013 @ 12:45:20
I’ve wondered this too. I do find that when my kids are complete away from the machines, they have some of their most creative moments. But then, I know that technology is a great tool for learning and experiencing things I never got to as a kid. We’ll just have to see how this generation turns out.
May 13, 2013 @ 14:39:04
I can’t imagine being without the ability to easily look something up just for the joy of it. At the same time, I know that as a writer, I sometimes need to shut down my computer and get away from it if I want to solve a problem I’m having with my plot.
May 13, 2013 @ 12:45:51
I just wrote a post regarding technology. I will sum it: Technology is a repeat and refinement of the past. We wrote, when that became to cumbersome we moved to typing, that was over taken by the computer, now we have voice (to less efficient system at the moment) but all of the above do one thing they are used to communicate ideas.
In my blog post I mentioned drawing, now we take pictures.
I look at children they are growing up in a world where learning how to use a typewriter would be like giving them an abacus. It isn’t that time is changing us, we are changing time. 🙂
Have a great day! love your blog posts.
May 13, 2013 @ 14:48:55
Thanks, Lisbeth! And what a great point. (Feel free to post the link here if you’d like.)
A lot of the changes in technology do simply make us more efficient at tasks we need to do anyway. I’m from the generation where computers weren’t in every home while I was growing up, but they were in most homes by the time I hit high school, so I still remember how cumbersome a typewriter could be, changing the ribbon and using white out when you made a mistake. I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to that!
May 13, 2013 @ 13:08:47
I think the technology also creates social challenges. Conversation suffers when folk are staring at phones. Creativity? I don’t know. It seems as if we are in a technology stand still. Things are being refined but no startling new inventions have come. Perhaps now is the time for sciences and art to advance. Perhaps there are ideas coming from technology that we who are used to nontechnical can’t imagine.
May 13, 2013 @ 14:41:12
One of my pet peeves is trying to talk to someone and they can’t even set down their phone for a few minutes to focus on the conversation. I find it really rude. Thanks for making that point! 🙂
I do think that those who are intimately familiar with technology will make advances us non-techies can’t even imagine. At the same time, I wonder if they’ll hit a point where they’re so blinded by technology and what they know that they won’t be able to think outside of that to solve problems and innovate the next big leap.
May 13, 2013 @ 13:28:43
My mom and I were talking about this last week. We got on the subject of my childhood–playing outside, putting on neighborhood shows, you know, creative free play. We wondered how much that happens nowadays with the internet, cell phones, and TV being on demand 24-7.
I do have to say that last week I watched my 4-year-old nephew play with a box–taking it apart and putting it together. He loves his movies and video games, but it was great to see him play like that.
May 13, 2013 @ 14:44:55
My husband and I have talked about this and how we’re going to handle it when we have a family one day. We want our future children to be comfortable with technology, but at the same time, we plan to limit the amount of time they’re allowed to spend inside on the internet, watching TV, or playing computer/video games. So much of life is about balance, and this area is no different.
May 13, 2013 @ 13:53:27
I don’t know either Marcy–nor do I want to make a guess. With all new technology something else dies (or becomes very dusty) this has been happening for a very long time, it’s just now it’s happening exponentially!
I love it when my son would rather be outside playing some made-up hybrid of football with the neighbor kids than on his iPod touch. And when our granddaughter spends the night, even though she loves to play Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, her favorite thing to do is to sit around a pretend campfire and while we take turns making up songs on the guitar.
So maybe part of the equation is adults need to put away the technology and model non-technological fun and know-how.
May 13, 2013 @ 13:54:36
Apparently, I did want to make a guess…
May 13, 2013 @ 14:42:45
Wonderful point! As adults, we are responsible for modeling for the children in our lives. If we show them how much fun we can have without technology (rather than using it to occupy them instead of spending time with them), they’ll be more likely to see technology as a useful tool rather than the center of life.
May 13, 2013 @ 14:27:13
There will be a backlash against technology and therein lies the possible title of the book. Rise of the Imaginators! hehehe
May 13, 2013 @ 14:43:07
Love that title! I think it sounds like a Seth Godin book.
May 13, 2013 @ 16:08:05
Hey Marcy! Awesome post. You’ve given us food for thought. I agree with all of the above. I also wonder if one day could all this technology overload electricity and we be in a situation like the TV show Revolution?!! Fiction show yes, but….scary thought just the same!!
P.S. LOVED Iron Man 3! 😀
May 13, 2013 @ 16:13:52
Revolution might be fiction, but I think part of its appeal comes from the fact that many of us could see it happening. As an example, in my area, the government has installed solar panels and wind turbines in an attempt to generate more sustainable sources of power. But most of what they generate is wasted because they haven’t also upgraded the systems for storage/delivery.
May 13, 2013 @ 18:16:57
My bet is we won’t really know until today’s ‘tweens’ are fully functioning adults … who will probably be having their own variation of this conversation about their own kids!
May 13, 2013 @ 18:19:43
Isn’t that the truth 🙂 They’ll probably be coming to the end of the next technological boom and chatting about this on whatever their version of a blog will be.
May 13, 2013 @ 19:30:19
Hi Marcy,
Thank you for responding! I do believe that artist should use technology to refine and enhance our crafts when necessary.
I work with 3 and 4 year olds the new term for them is “digital learners” No more generation X.
These are children who are learning to create with technology and I have to tell you if you could see the work they are creating at 3 and 4 in all artistic mediums your mind would be blown 🙂
Thank you for suggesting I post my blog. If you would like to take a read please do so.
Thanks again! Please keep writing I enjoy and look forward to your blog posts 🙂
May 13, 2013 @ 20:18:02
Whenever I heard someone making insults about those who use Facebook, I point out that technology is just a tool. Tools are useful, but can be misused. I’m an older lady, and I remember banging out stories on a typewriter. I remember first using a word processor when it was all DOS, just green letters on a black screen. I also remember when the internet was used only by government employees; my roommate was a Russian translator so he had access to the internet when it was just a geek hang out. And over the years, I’ve watched many creative arts–including writing–go downhill with the greater reliance on technology.
My primary career was music, and I think it’s sad that so many popular singers can’t stay on key–so many, in fact, that people have become accustomed to under-pitch singing and can’t even tell when someone’s off key. Also, the quality of the songs themselves are lacking, which is why so many are now doing covers of older material. I see the same thing happening with writing. There are so many errors in the books being published. Part of the blame for this can also be laid at the feet of our declining educational system, but the fact that it started at about the same time as this swell of technological dependence isn’t a coincidence.
As a reader, I’m becoming desperate for originality. Many of the books I read now are obviously derived from popular movies and television, and it bores me to tears. While browsing Smashwords the other day, I kept seeing blurbs such “The female Jack Reacher!” and “If you’re a fan of Nora Roberts, you’ll love this!” And I think those blurbs answer your question.
May 13, 2013 @ 22:38:34
I’m with you on hotels stays over camping in the wilderness, Marcy. I also think our society is overdependent on technology, my own borderline addiction aside. 😉 My husband can start a fire with sticks (Boy Scouts!) and would know better than most people how to survive if we suddenly had no technology.
I think it’s important for all of us to unplug on occasion. Doing so makes us more mindful and appreciative, IMO. As a side note, I think too much technology causes lots of sleep problems as well. I’ve read studies, and experienced, the effects of too much electricity/lights, etc., too late at night.
May 14, 2013 @ 00:49:50
I agree with you and August, Marcy. I’m done with roughing it, whenever I stay in a hotel, it has separate rooms for the adults and the kids. Of course, living in a boat that has less floor space than my tent might have something to do with that.
When I look at technology, I see that many more people are now able to do things that would previously have been limited to a qualified/educated few. The majority of people on earth now have a better quality of life than the most exalted medieval royalty. The sad fact is that if the technology went away, we would lose more than just the obvious advancements because the people who actually develop, and maintain the equipment, engineers and technicians rely on technology to do their jobs as much as anyone else does, and once every last phone, radio, printer, fridge, computer-driven lathe, and hi-tech manufacturing plant is worn out, we can’t design new ones.
May 14, 2013 @ 04:06:06
I think technology is like anything else; too much is well, too much! Of course it’s rude to ignore the person beside you to talk on the phone and text, but I love that we have these options for communicating. (And there have always been rude people, technology didn’t create this behavior.) Being a writer I have to say, I love my laptop, and can’t imagine life without it. I can’t write a sentence without immediately editing it, so a typewriter would be a nightmare for me. And my handwriting is mostly illegible. As for the Internet I don’t have a great memory so I see no disadvantage to being able to look things up quickly and easily.
Is Technology Killing Our Creativity? | digitalcollaboration
May 15, 2013 @ 04:40:58
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May 15, 2013 @ 08:01:45
Whew! I thought you were going to be running my Iron Man down. But I totally agree with you. One that TONY was Iron Man, not the suit. And two…I wonder the same thing about kids today, and those who were kids 15 or 20 years ago…and who have been unleashed on the public. It makes me sad when I get a bill for $6.27 and, when I had the cashier a twenty, a one and the exact change, they will stand there looking at me like I’m nuts. All I can say is enter it in the cash register and it will come out so I get $15.00 back instead of several bills and a bunch of change. And they’re always surprised when it works.
I think technology is ruining kids. Not only will they not be able to write, they won’t be able to spell. Most of them can’t last two minutes without checking their cell phones. Too many are willing to put their lives, and the lives of everyone on the road, in danger in order to text and drive (or dial, talk and drive). I find it all very scary.
May 15, 2013 @ 12:56:35
Run down Iron Man? Never! 🙂
I’ve had the same thing happen with giving change. It seems so simple to me because I learned to add and subtract without aid of a calculator. And the spelling on some things…don’t even get me started.
May 15, 2013 @ 17:37:44
I don’t know.. I like the perspective that Kaye Monroe uses “Technology is just a tool … tools can be used or abused“. There’s no reason to think that we won’t be able to think as a result of technological advances, but there’s little doubt we will lose certain skills.
Thing is, we’ve (humanity has) always done this. How many of us go out and grow our own wheat for bread, grind the grains, beat the flax stalks for sewing fibers and make our own clothes, etc.? We drive cars now–can you hitch a horse to a wagon (and repair a wheel on that wagon if it breaks on your trip)–I know I can’t.
But we gain new skills, and we do new things. I think we are in a transition period at the moment. Maybe we’re always in a transition period and it’s only because we’re pyaing attention to our own lives we notice, but either way… I think it’s natural.
May 15, 2013 @ 17:45:04
I hadn’t looked at it that way–that certain skills die by necessity. We don’t think about it at all when we buy bread instead of making it (which I can do, but I certainly don’t grind my own grain). As long as we don’t have a disaster where those skills will be necessary again, they won’t be missed.
I wonder, though, if there’s a difference between losing skills and losing the ability to innovate beyond what we already know. Like I said, I don’t know the answer 🙂 Thanks for giving me another perspective to add into the mix in my brain.
May 21, 2013 @ 01:21:51
Marcy,
I live with two children who have never attended school – and have freedom to use technology as they will.
They generally do math in their heads without writing anything down (that schoolish system doesn’t make much sense to them; they have creatively adapted their own ways of manipulating numbers).
My son, almost 12, often poses ethical and theoretical questions, often convoluted.
My daughter, a few weeks from her ninth party, is a born storyteller – she narrates her play. She doesn’t write stories yet, but is very interested in knowing that I do, and she writes in her journal and creates fashion sketches in her sketch pad.
Technology often becomes part of their creativity – through Minecraft, Picasso, photo editing, videos, animation….and allowing the chance to talk and play with out of state friends.
With free access to technology whenever they want it(although it’s a little limited when we camp), they still choose to do many creative things – they love to play outside, board games, games they invent, build, plan…..
Imagination is everywhere here!
Here’s a thought – the items from the hardware store are still technology – just of a simpler form.
Honestly, I think that years of traditional, one-size-fits-all schooling may do more harm to creativity than technology that can spur vast leaps in possibility. Too often, the creative endeavors kids get in school are designed and assigned by adults, to achieve adult purposes that have little to do with a child’s true inner passions.
With most of their time free, my kids spend a lot of time in creative pursuits they choose for themselves, based on what fires their imaginations. They are as creative as they were as toddlers – they have become more capable and sophisticated as they grow.
I’m glad you posted this. It really inspired me to consider. I am sharing this link in my weekly mash-up, Sunday Sampler. =)
May 21, 2013 @ 01:43:13
Oops, I made a mistake. You’ll be in the June 2 Sunday Sampler.
May 23, 2013 @ 16:07:06
I definitely think this could be an issue, but at the same time, the internet allows us to be exposed to more information, to be more inspired, to be more creative. Technology helps to bolster creativity — think of all the things we couldn’t do 50 years ago that we can now. Our imaginations run rampant because of it.
I think it’s 50/50. It depends on how you use it. The answer may only be a Google search away, to be searched and forgotten by some. But for others, that Google search sticks in their mind. They may not have known it before, but they will now, and they will remember it forever.
Great post. Very thought provoking.